Multi-wavelength observations of IGR J17544-2619 from quiescence to outburst

Journal
Date Issued
2016
Author(s)
Bozzo, E.
•
Bhalerao, V.
•
Pradhan, P.
•
Tomsick, J.
•
•
Ferrigno, C.
•
Chaty, S.
•
Oskinova, L.
•
Manousakis, A.
•
Walter, R.
•
Falanga, M.
•
•
•
Ramolla, M.
•
Chini, R.
DOI
Abstract
In this paper we report on a long multi-wavelength observational campaign of the supergiant fast X-ray transient prototype IGR J17544-2619. A 150 ks-long observation was carried out simultaneously with XMM-Newton and NuSTAR, catching the source in an initial faint X-ray state and then undergoing a bright X-ray outburst lasting approximately 7 ks. We studied the spectral variability during outburst and quiescence by using a thermal and bulk Comptonization model that is typically adopted to describe the X-ray spectral energy distribution of young pulsars in high mass X-ray binaries. Although the statistics of the collected X-ray data were relatively high, we could neither confirm the presence of a cyclotron line in the broad-band spectrum of the source (0.5-40 keV), nor detect any of the previously reported tentative detections of the source spin period. The monitoring carried out with Swift /XRT during the same orbit of the system observed by XMM-Newton and NuSTAR revealed that the source remained in a low emission state for most of the time, in agreement with the known property of all supergiant fast X-ray transients being significantly sub-luminous compared to other supergiant X-ray binaries. Optical and infrared observations were carried out for a total of a few thousand seconds during the quiescence state of the source detected by XMM-Newton and NuSTAR. The measured optical and infrared magnitudes were slightly lower than previous values reported in the literature, but compatible with the known micro-variability of supergiant stars. UV observations obtained with the UVOT telescope on-board Swift did not reveal significant changes in the magnitude of the source in this energy domain compared to previously reported values.
Volume
596
Start page
A16
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
0004-6361
Ads BibCode
2016A&A...596A..16B
Rights
open.access
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